Tag: change

God Works Through Others to Refine Us

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn PastoralLeave a comment

God not only works through circumstances, but He also works through others to get our attention.

I distinctly remember one time when this happened in my life. It was when I was in college. When I moved off to the University of Georgia, I got involved in the party scene. One night in particular I was sitting at the bar with a friend and we were talking about religion. He was an atheist, so I was telling him why he should believe in Jesus. In the course of conversation, I remember him looking at me and saying,

“You know, you’re telling me about Jesus. How He is supposed to change your life and all, but I don’t see a difference between you and I. We pretty much do the same thing, live the same life.”

While I’d like to tell you things changed that night, I can’t. But what I can tell you is that God did get my attention with that conversation and it was the catalyst for future change in my life.

God may be speaking to you through someone else right now.

It might be a friend, it might be a spouse, it might be a church member or someone in the community.
God will use a number of different people to speak into our lives. We need others to speak into our lives. We need everyday relationships with other church members who can hold us accountable and are willing to speak to the truth of God’s Word into our life.

Listen when others speak

When others speak, we need to be willing to listen and then do the hard work of assessing whether what they are saying is right or not, and then make the necessary changes if it is.

When you are assessing whether the person is right or not, don’t do it in the moment of that conversation. Our first reaction to others confronting us with something we are doing against God’s will or loving more than God is almost always to be defensive, so don’t assess right then, unless you are convicted. Instead, assess later when you are out of the moment. Spend some time afterward in personal reflection and prayer. Maybe even ask others you know if they see that in you as well.

God will use others along with circumstances to convict and teach us.

Preach the Gospel for a Changed Nation

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” (Ps 24:1–2)

The Sovereignty of God

The Psalmist tells us that God is sovereign over all creation. God’s sovereignty stems from His ownership. The heavens, the earth, and all that dwell within were created by God and are now sustained by Him.

Foreign Concept

God as Creator and sovereign Lord is a foreign concept for most. One that is rejected by our culture, which is why our nation is in the state it is in. When we reject the Creator and His design for how we are to live, we will suffer the consequences (Rom 1).



What’s Needed for Change

A revival of the idea that God is Creator and Sovereign Lord over all is what is needed for this nation to get back on track, not the right political candidate or governmental program. I say that because recognizing those things about God will cause us once again to live according to His design and plan, which is what our country was founded on, and it is what our country needs to be great again. So instead of preaching your favorite political candidate or governmental program, preach the gospel to your neighbor. It is the only thing that will change their heart and mind. It is the only thing that will cause them to see God for who He is – Our Creator and Sovereign Lord. So preach the gospel, it is the only thing that will bring about the change we desire.

Question for Reflection

  1. Do you believe the gospel has the power to change our nation?

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A Continual Reformation

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals, QuotesLeave a comment

Fundamentally, Reformed theology is theology founded on and fashioned by God’s Word.

For it is God’s Word that forms our theology, and it is we who are reformed by that theology as we constantly return to God’s Word every day and in every generation.

At its core, this is what the sixteenth-century Reformation was all about, and it’s what being Reformed is all about – confessing and practicing what God’s Word teaches.

The Reformation isn’t over, nor will it ever be over, because reformation – God’s word and God’s Spirit reforming His church – will never end.

God’s Word is always powerful and God’s Spirit is always working to renew our minds, transform our hearts, and change our lives. Therefore, the people of God, the church, will be always “being reformed” according to the unchanging Word of God, not according to our ever-changing culture.

Question for Reflection

  1. Is God’s Word or the culture changing you?

Resources

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TableTalk Magazine, January 2015, The True Reformers, Burk Parsons

The Uneasiness of Change

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals2 Comments

Change

Change, it is not easy. It is not something we usually want. It, however, is necessary. It was necessary for those in Jesus’ day, and it is necessary for us today.

The Day Jesus Changed Things in Jerusalem

In Matthew 21, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey with a procession essentially shouting He is the Messiah. Given the commotion, the shouts of the people, it is clear this man is claiming some sort of Jewish kingship. Rome ruled the Jews at this time. Rome wouldn’t take this man’s claim lightly. They didn’t in the past. If you remember, in Matthew 2 when the Wise Men came into the city asking for the king, Herod had all the first born babies killed.

The people are worried. They don’t know what is going to happen. They don’t know how Rome would react. Threatened by this man’s presence, they want to know who He is. At the end of verse 10, they ask just that. They ask:

“Who is this?” (Mt. 21:10b)

The crowd responds by telling them:

“This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” (Mt. 21:11)

While there is debate over this point, I believe they mean He is the prophet like Moses prophesied about in Deuteronomy 18. There the text says,

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers – it is him you shall listen -…And whoever will not listen to my words that He shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.” (Deut. 18:15, 19).

So the crowd, observing all that Jesus has done and said, determines He is the prophet like Moses that God has sent. He is the One who has come to lead God’s people. With that pronouncement Jesus is not only set against Rome but also against the religious leaders of the day.

Hearing the crowds answer, the citizens of Jerusalem knew their comfortable peaceful life was being disrupted. Their life as they knew it was being threatened.

Jesus Disrupts Our Life

Isn’t that what Jesus does? He comes into our life and shakes things up. If we are honest with ourselves, most of us don’t want Jesus messing with things in our life. Disrupting what we have going for us.

We don’t want Jesus to change things because we like our sin. We like being in control. We like what’s comfortable. We don’t want anything to change. Jesus, however, wants things to change in our life. He not only wants things to change, He changes things. He comes into our life and changes things just like He did in Jerusalem.

Jesus Doesn’t Change Things To Hurt Us

Instead, He changes things because that is what is best for us. He does it to set things right in our life so we will live according to God’s will, which is what we were created to do. So Jesus doesn’t change things to hurt us, He changes things because it is what is best for us. He changes things so that we will better accomplish our God given purpose.

Question for Reflection

  1. What is Jesus changing in your life right now?

Resources

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What is the Wrong and Right Way to Seek Change in Our Life?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, PracticalLeave a comment

I recently read an article by Tim Keller entitled: Gospel Preaching. In Appendix B: Applying Christ, he gives reasons people may say no to ungodliness before giving us the real way we can change. I would like to quote Keller at length, rather than attempting to summarize. Keller says,

The Wrong Way to Seek Change

Think of all the ways you can ‘say no’ to ungodliness. You can say “No-because I’ll look bad!” You can say “No-because I’ll be excluded from the social circles I want to belong to.” You can say “No-because then God will not give me health, wealth, and happiness.” You can say “No-because God will send me to hell.” You can say “No-because I’ll hate myself in the morning and disappoint myself and have low self-esteem.”

But virtually all of these motives are really just motives of fear and pride – the very things that also lead to sin. You are just using sinful self-centered impulses of the heart to keep you compliant to external rules without really changing the heart itself.

Also, you are not really doing anything out of love for God. You are using God to get things – self-esteem, prosperity, or social approval. So your deepest joys and hopes rest in other things beside God. This kind of ‘obedience’ does not issue from a changed heart at all.

How to Change

Paul is saying: If you want to really change and gain self-control you must let the gospel teach you – a word that means to train, discipline, coach you over a period of time. You must let the gospel argue with you. You must let the gospel sink down deeply until it changes the structures of your motivation and views of things. John Stott says on Titus 2:14: “Grace not only saves, but undertakes our training. Grace bases her teaching upon the great facts in which her first grand revelation of herself was made, and finds all her teaching power in those mighty memories!”

This Does Not Mean

This does not mean that Christians should not use every possible means to exercise self-control in the crucial moment. If you feel an impulse to pick up a rock and hit someone with it – do anything at all to keep yourself from doing it! Tell yourself “I’ll go to jail! I’ll disgrace my family!” Anything. There’s no reason why in the short run a Christian can not simply use ‘will-power’ like that to make a change that is necessary.

But in the long run change will only come from changing the heart’s deepest affections with the melting, moving grace of God.

Conclusion

In this article, Keller provides us with three things that are happening when we do not seek change at the heart level: (1) We will not truly change. (2) We end up using God to build our self-esteem, prosperity, or social approval because our hope lies in something other than God. (3) We end up using sinful self-centered impulses derived from fear and pride to exact external change in order to remain compliant to our social circles accepted actions, or because we believe compliance to rules will gain us favor with God; thus, meriting us health, wealth, happiness, and a ticket out of hell.

In contrast, the only way for us to really change is if our heart is affected by the Gospel. Instead of forcing ourselves to keep external rules, we need to seek change at the heart level by preaching the Gospel to ourselves and allowing the grace of God to melt away our hearts deepest affections for our own self promotion, glory, satisfaction, and pleasure.